Pause, Pause, Play?

By Jamie Thingelstad,
November 2, 2008.

I was flipping through the Economist this morning and this ad for Cathay Pacific caught my eye. I guess that’s the goal of advertising and all, but this seemed like it had to be an error. Here is the copy from the ad.

The world (PAUSE) of

entertainment (PAUSE) is

at your control (PLAY).

Does that make any sense? Why would you start with a “pause”? And why would you hit “pause” after already hitting “pause”. This is all wrong. I guess you could argue that sometimes hitting “pause” after having hit “pause” already will resume playing, but then why would you hit “play” on the 3rd action? I can only imagine it is an error since this makes a lot more sense. (Edit in red)

The world (PLAY) of

entertainment (PAUSE) is

at your control (PLAY).

Right? Start with “play”, then “pause” for interruption, and resume with “play”.